Erik Bakich reacts to series loss vs FSU, Clemson running out of time
Clemson is on the outside looking in for the 2026 NCAA Tournament and Clemson head coach Erik Bakich knows they’re running out of time.
Clemson baseball is running out of time to fix its season. After entering the year with big expectations, the Tigers are now likely staring at a path where an ACC Tournament title may be their only realistic shot at reaching the NCAA Tournament. Sunday’s 6-3 loss to Florida State sealed another conference series defeat and dropped Clemson to 30-22 overall and 9-18 in ACC play.
The offensive gap between the two teams was obvious all weekend. Florida State finished the series with 34 hits while Clemson had only 21, forcing the Tigers to constantly try to climb back into games. Even during Saturday’s 4-3 win, Clemson was still out-hit.
Across the three games, Erik Bakich’s team only held a lead for one inning total. “They outplayed us, for sure,” Bakich said. “And just got behind early and never could quite get the offense going.
So, unfortunately, just wasn’t the complementary baseball we needed. ” Clemson’s struggles at the plate showed up again in Sunday’s rubber match. The Tigers had multiple opportunities to create offense after getting six leadoff runners aboard throughout the game, but almost nothing came from it.